South Carolina Ph.D. Graduate Banned From Returning Home After Visiting Family in Iran

South Carolina Ph.D. Graduate Banned From Returning Home After Visiting Family in Iran

An Iranian woman who graduated with her Ph.D. from a South Carolina University has been barred from returning to the U.S. under President Trump’s new executive order, according to reports.

Nazanin Zinouri, a Clemson University graduate, said she was excited to take the trip to see her family in Iran but after hearing rumors about the order, which has bans citizens from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen, from entering the United States, she began to worry.

“I might be banned from going back?!?! No that can't be true. I'm not gonna let that ruin my trip. But then it got serious so fast. Before I knew it, it was actually happening,” Zinouri wrote in a Facebook post.

Zinouri said she quickly got on a plane to Dubai and eventually boarded a plane to Washington but was then removed from the plane.

“After waiting in the line to get my documents checked and after 40 minutes of questions and answers, I boarded the plane to Washington, only to have two TSA officers getting in and ask me to disembark the plane!!! Yes after almost 7 years of living the the United States, I got deported!!!” She continued.

Zinouri said she has no idea what will happen to her job or life in South Carolina, where she has lived for seven years.

“They didn't say it with words but with their actions, that my life doesn't matter. Everything I worked for all these years doesn't matter,” Zinouri wrote.

Trump’s new order, which was enacted on Friday, will be in effect for the next 90 days, and the ban on Syrian citizens is currently indefinite.

On Saturday night, a federal judge in New York blocked the deportation of people stranded in US airports under the executive action.

"The petitioners have a strong likelihood of success in establishing that the removal of the petitioner and other similarly situated violates their due process and equal protection guaranteed by the United States Constitution," US District Judge Ann Donnelly wrote in her decision.

Protests have broken out across the country, including at airports where people are being detained, against what many are calling the “Muslim ban.”